Khuddaka Nikaya - Nettippakarana ( The Guide ) - Specification Section Part 3-5
ACCORDING TO
KACCANA THERA
TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
Pali Text Society
Mode 5
[The Ninefold Thread in the Mode of Conveying Characteristics]
170. [30] Herein, what is the Mode of Conveying Characteristics ?
The Mode of Conveying Characteristics is this:
167/1 NettiA reads pattarinutd for mattannutd and explains as 'knowledge
of what one has reached through keeping in being' (p. 79). But all eds.
confirm PTS, which suggests bhojane mattannutd (see M. iii, 2), though the
connexion is not then very clear.
167/2 'Attanriutd—knowledge of self' is 'knowing oneself to be possessed of
the five factors of endeavour (see A. iii, 65)' according to NettiA. This
rejects taking atta here as pp. of a + ^/dd ('knowledge of what has been taken
up') , cf. asamatta (§§575f.).
168/1 O, Ba and Bb support PTSy but NettiA reads yo koci upanissayo
balavapaccayo, though it cites an alternative reading evam yd kdci wpanisd
yogato ca pacmyato caf which suggests a remarkable corruption worthy of the
Pe texts. The sentence is repeated below at §463.
'When one idea is mentioned, all
Ideas of like characteristic
Are mentioned too: this constitutes
The Mode Conveying Characteristics' (§9).
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171. How does it characterize? [It does so as follows: When]
certain ideas have a single [common] characteristic, then when one
of those ideas is stated, the rest of those ideas are stated.
172. How would that be ? According [for example] as the Blessed
One said: (Bhikkhus, the eye is unstable, small, trifling, fleeting:
besides (?) it is painful, destructible, liable to dislodgement, ashes (f),
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a determination (?); it is a victim for slaughter in the midst ofenemies)
( ). Now when this eye is stated, the rest of the bases in
oneself [beginning with the ear] are stated. For what reason ?
Because all the bases in oneself have a single [common] charac-
teristic in the sense of victim for slaughter
2
.
173. And according as the Blessed One said: (Radha, do not look
back
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with yearning to past form; do not expectantly relish future form;
practise the way to dispassion, fading of lust, ceasing, giving up, and
relinquishment, as to presently-arisen form) ( ). Now
when this form category is stated, the rest of the categories are
stated. For what reason ? Because in the Yamakovdda Sutta
(S. iii, 113) all the five categories of assumption have a single
characteristic in the sense of victim for slaughter.
174. And according as the Blessed One said:
( They whose mindfulness of body
Is constantly well instigated
Do never what should not be done
And ever do what should be done) (Dh. 293; Pe 91).
So when Mindfulness Occupied with the Body is stated, Mindfulness
Occupied with Feeling and that Occupied with Cognizance and that
Occupied with Ideas are stated (see D. Sutta 22, M. Sutta 119).
And likewise when anything whatever that is seen or heard or
170/1 I.e., one being stated, the rest are implied positively or negatively.
172/1 This untraced quotation, which NettiA and Tlkd ignore, is full of
difficulties. I t is not clear how parato (rendered 'besides') is to be taken;
it could mean 'alien'. Also the words kukkulam and sankharam are obscure
in this context.
172/2 Read vadhakatphena.
173/1 In view of 'patipajja' at end of sentence, read hohi for hoti.
sensed1
is stated, what is cognized is stated. And the Blessed One
said accordingly: [31] (Therefore, bhikkhus, abide contemplating the
body as a body, ardent, aware and mindful, guiding out covetousness
and grief about the world) (cf. M. iii, 83).
Now 'ardent' [here means] the energy faculty, 'aware' the under-
standing faculty, 'mindful' the mindfulness faculty, and 'guiding
out covetousness and grief the concentration faculty. So when
someone abides contemplating the body as a body the four Founda-
tions of Mindfulness come to fulfilment through keeping in being.
For what reason ? Because of the four faculties' state of having a
single characteristic.
175. When the four Foundations of Mindfulness are kept in being
the four Right Endeavours come to fulfilment through keeping in
being. When the four Right Endeavours are kept in being the four
Bases for Success (Roads to Power) come to fulfilment through
keeping in being. When the four Bases for Success are kept in
being the five Faculties [beginning with Faith] come to fulfilment
through keeping in being. When the five Faculties are kept in
being the five Powers
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come to fulfilment through keeping in being.
When the five Powers are kept in being the seven Enlightenment
Factors come to fulfilment through keeping in being. When the
seven Enlightenment Factors are kept in being the Noble Eight-
Factored Path2
comes to fulfilment through keeping in being. And
all ideas that tend to enlightenment and partake of enlightenment
come to fulfilment through keeping in being. For what reason ?
Because all ideas that tend to enlightenment and partake of en-
lightenment have a single characteristic with their characteristic of
giving outlet. They come to fulfilment through keeping in being
owing to their singleness of characteristic (see also §§451-2).
174/1 ^Muta—sensed': a comprehensive term for what is smelt, tasted and
touched (see Nd2 ad Sn. 789); apparently never means 'thought , supposed,
imagined' as given in PED, which is probably due to faulty etymology. The
root is not at present certain. I t may be noted that a Sanskrit version of
the Pali dittha-suta-muta-vinndta is drste . . . srute cintite vijndte (see Lamotte,
p. 608) which is divergent from the Pali commentaries' explanation of muta
(see Niddesa, etc.).
175/1 The '5 Powers' (bald) are the same five as the '5 faculties' (indriya) but
considered from the point of view, not of their 'potentiality' or 'predominance'
when arisen as faculties, but of their 'unshakability' when kept in being as
powers against their respective opposites (see Ps. i, 21).
175/2 'Eight-factored path' is merely more literal than the more elegant
and familiar 'eightfold path' .
176. Also unprofitable ideas are abandoned and disappear owing to
their singleness of characteristic. When the four Foundations of
Mindfulness are kept in being the Perversions are abandoned, the
Nutriments come to diagnosis, one becomes free from assuming as
regards the Assumptions, one is unfettered from the Bonds, one is
dissociated from the Ties, one is untainted by the Taints, one has
crossed over the Floods, one is barbless as regards the Barbs, the
Steadying-Points for Consciousness
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come to one's diagnosis, and
one goes no bad way as regards the Goings on the Bad Ways (cf.
§§484-7). [32] In this way also one's unprofitable ideas are aban-
doned and disappear.
177. Or else, wherein a faculty having form [such as the eye, etc.]
is taught, therein too are taught the form element, the form category,
and the form base.
178. Or else, wherein pleasant feeling is taught, therein too are
taught the pleasure faculty, the joy faculty, and the origin of
suffering as a Noble Truth.
179. Or else, wherein painful feeling is taught, therein too are
taught the pain faculty, the grief faculty, and suffering as a Noble
Truth.
180. Or else, wherein neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling is taught,
therein too are taught the onlooking-equanimity faculty, and all
dependent arising.
1
For what reason ? Because ignorance under-
lies neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling (see M. i, 303); with
ignorance as condition, determinations; with determinations as
condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, narne-
and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the sixfold base; with
the sixfold base as condition, contact; with contact as condition,
176/1 ' Vinndnatthiti—steadying-point for consciousness': these are explained
to some extent in §§304, 306 (see also refs. in Index). Four kinds are given
at D. iii, 228 and seven (on a different basis) at D. iii, 253. PED rather
obscures than clarifies; for 'duration' and 'phase' are not directly intended,
but rather the particular 'original choice' by which consciousness first roots
itself on its basic object, upon which ramification takes place into the
experience of life. At death the 'steadying-point' is lost and another assumed
by the action of craving, and so a new life ramifies out again upon that . And
so on. (See also 8. ii, 65 quoted at §840).
180/1 NettiA says 'The construction is: The whole formula of Dependent
Arising is taught too; for the neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling is underlain
owing to the underlying tendency to ignorance (see M. i, 303). So this kind
of feeling implies ignorance, and ignorance implies the whole Dependent-
Arising formula, of which it is the initial member' (p. 83).
feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as con-
dition, assuming; with assuming as condition, being; with being as
condition, birth; with birth as condition ageing and death have
actual being, and also sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief, and
despair; that is how there is an origin to this whole category of
suffering (cf. S. ii, 1).
181. Now this [Dependent Arising] can be brought to abandonment
by way of that which is on the side of corruption through its being
affected by lust, affected by hate, and affected by delusion; and it
can be brought to abandonment by way of the noble ideas that are
without lust, without hate, and without delusion.
1
182. In this way, as regards those ideas that have a single charac-
teristic in their function1
and in their characteristic and in their
generality, and also in their death and reappearance, when one
of these ideas is stated the rest of such ideas are also stated.
183. That is why the venerable Maha-Kaccana said:
'When one idea is mentioned, all
Ideas of like characteristic
Are mentioned too: this constitutes
The Mode Conveying Characteristics' (§9).
The Mode of Conveying Characteristics is ended.
181/1 Forhdtabba seen. 44/1. NettiA (p. 83) explains thus: ' "And" has the
meaning of the negative (byatireka, i.e., cessation), whereby he illustrates how
this Dependent Arising is twofold as "with" and "against", as will be stated
later. What is called "that on the side of corruption" (namely "arising") is
the former and the other (namely "cessation") the latter' . Here the hdtabba
phrase can probably be taken in the sense of 'brought to the abandonment
of craving by appropriate reasoning'.
182/1 NettiA distinguishes as follows: ' "Function" means that of, say,
earth's upholding as a constituent of form, or contact's making coincide
(see n. 164/6), which is formless, or any arisen condition-idea's conditioning
of any appropriately conditionally-arisen idea. "Characteristic" means any in-
dividual-essence such as earth's hardness, or contact's touching. "Generality"
means any such kind as the "deformability" (ruppana) of form (rupa), the
"bent-for-naming" (namana) of name (ndma). "Death and reappearance"
means the dissolution and rearising of determined ideas, or the co-arising
and co-ceasing of form and formless (see n. 92/1)' .
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